Johns (Sam) Collection

About this collection

This 10-volume collection of newspaper articles and other early writing provides a unique look at the Flathead area of Montana in the late 1800s. It includes information about Native Americans, settlers, and early towns (such as Demersville). Its compiler, Samuel Enoch Johns (1866-1945) was 23 years old when he arrived in the Flathead area in 1889. Johns was a Kalispell, Montana businessman and local historian who compiled the histories at the urging of his brother-in-law, Frank Bird Linderman.